Profiting From Recession, Payday Lenders Spend Big to Fight Regulation

Industry steps up lobbying efforts as the Senate grapples with financial reform.

Photo Credit: Lagan Sebert / Investigative Fund

The influential $42 billion-a-year payday lending industry, thriving from a surge in emergency loans to people struggling through the recession, is pouring record sums into lobbying, campaign contributions, and public relations – and getting results.

As the Senate prepares to take up financial reform, lobbyists are working to exempt companies that make short-term cash loans from proposed new federal regulations and policing. In state capitals around the country, payday companies have been fighting some 100 pieces of legislation aimed at safeguarding borrowers from high interest rates and from falling into excessive debt.

Last year, as the U.S. House drew up a financial reform bill, some lawmakers who were courted by the companies and received campaign contributions from them helped crush amendments seeking to restrict payday practices, a review by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found.

Read on...


1 comment:

Instant Payday Loans said...

Pay day loan Loans can be an instant answer to consumers that require funds in a few minutes. Unlike trying to obtain a conventional mortgage from a financial institution, a payday advance online requires no collateral. A poor credit score score is not an issue with this interest rate because no credit score assessment is performed. A standard mortgage can take weeks or even months to obtain approval and funding.